Resist material for imprinting, pattern formation method, and imprinting apparatus

1. A pattern formation method comprising:

applying a plurality of resist droplets for imprinting to a substrate discretely in space, the resist droplets including a first resin component that is nonvolatile, a second resin component that is volatile, and a coupling reaction initiator that promotes curing of the first resin component;

causing the second resin component in the plurality of resist droplets applied to the substrate discretely to evaporate, thereby reducing the resist droplets in volume and keeping the resist droplets discrete;

imprinting a pattern surface of a template onto, in the order of resist drop application, a shot of the resist droplets, the resist droplets which are reduced in volume due to the second resin component that has evaporated and are discrete, the resist droplets being transformed to a resist film by the imprinting;

curing the resist film while keeping the pattern surface of the template imprinted onto the resist film; and

separating the template from the resist film after the resist film has been cured,

wherein during the imprinting a pattern surface of a template onto the resist droplets reduced in volume in the shot, resist droplets for imprinting are applied onto the substrate discretely in space in another shot.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the volume of the resist droplets is reduced by leaving the resist droplets to stand longer than a prescribed time or by performing a heat treatment on the resist droplets.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the resist droplets are applied to the substrate by ejecting the resist droplets to the substrate by an ink-jet nozzle.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the patterned resist film between the substrate and the patterned template is cured by applying ultraviolet light.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein applying the plurality of resist droplets for imprinting to the substrate discretely in space comprises:

applying a lower number of resist droplets on a region of the substrate corresponding to a position wherein a densely-patterned region of the template is to be imprinted as compared to a number of resist droplets on a region of the substrate corresponding to a position wherein a sparsely-patterned region of the template is to be imprinted; and

applying the resist droplets in the same volume, wherever they are applied on the substrate.